China May 2008 Day 3

Hello all! This is Day 3 of China!

Day 3- 25 May 2008

This is my accomodation in Shanghai.. Bin Yue Guo Ji Hotel.. Well, mine's not really a hotel.. More like a service apartment.. But they still provided breakfast though..

Since we still had the morning to kill before our train to Nanjing, we took a cab to this place called "Yu Yuan".. Its sort of a temple kinda place merged with lots of local and international brands to become a shopping district.. If you can see it, there is Starbucks on the right..

And they sold this "Crab Dumpling" for about RMB12.. You just use a straw and suck the soup out of the dumpling.. But the dumpling is not meant for eating though.. It's as hard as rock.. Speaking of rock, the Dragon Beard Candy is also very hard..


Since we still had somemore time, we headed for this place called 新天地 which is another shopping district but built on the old streets of Shanghai.. The Olympic Torch went past there yesterday I think..

At the same time, there was also a fund raising ceremony going on for the Sichuan victims.. Been seeing the reports on almost every channel on China TV so we decided to donate some money to them.. And we got a T-shirt as a souvenir as well..

Back to the hotel, we saw a filming session outside.. Didn't see any famous actors or actresses so we left.. Bought instant noodles for lunch and ate them while watching TV.. Then it was time to head for the train station..

It was a pretty hectic place I would say.. People were jostling everywhere just to get seats in the waiting area.. The toilet cubicles only had half a door and we even had to sit on the floor as there were no more seats.. I can't imagine if it were the CNY period..

Anyway, it was time to board the train.. I had no idea why but people were squeezing us in all the way as if their life counted on it.. Push Push Push! So we push too! Haha.. Later on, I realise its because the train is also splilt into different classes.. There was "First Class", Mine was "Business Class" and the "Economy Class" was Free Seating! Haha.. Now you know why people wanted to squeeze?

The train ride took about 2 hours to reach Nanjing.. Headed for our hotel, Grand Metro Park Hotel.. My sister and I had a room of our own while my father had his own.. Went up to dump the luggage and headed back down to the lobby.. Met my father's colleague, Uncle KC there.. So the 4 of us headed to this place called, "夫子庙" for dinner and shopping.. Here are some pictures of the place..



We had dinner at some local restaurant.. Tried to be adventurous and ordered some Ulu Ulu food.. Headed for the local night market along the same street and shopped like crazy.. Haha.. You can get stuff for really cheap prices.. Headed back to the hotel to rest after that..

By the way, did you know that this is how the Taxi Driver's seat in China looks like? They're covered up in this thick plastic board to protect themselves..

Ok.. This is Day 3.. Stay tuned for more!